Ding at Penn

I just got rejected from Penn after being deferred early. I obviously can't read Meeker's mind, but I suspect yield protection was at work here, particularly since I didn't write any of the optional essays (most notably the Why Penn). Anyway, both Columbia and NYU are higher choices for me, so I'm not really affected by the news.

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Infoolio

Yield protection is for people who will obviously get into a higher ranked school. People with URM status and 170ish LSATs or people with 179s/4.0s in challenging majors. I don't think 4.0/169 is a gimme at any school ranked higher than Penn.

You might be right, Info. Still, it seems odd that both NYU and Columbia would accept me pretty early in the game while Penn wouldn't even waitlist me. Ultimately, though, the reasoning behind the decision isn't knowable.

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Infoolio

You might be right, Info. Still, it seems odd that both NYU and Columbia would accept me pretty early in the game while Penn wouldn't even waitlist me. Ultimately, though, the reasoning behind the decision isn't knowable.

In your shoes, I'd take Columbia and run through the streets with it. Some people argue it's on par with Stanford (it probably is on the East coast). I wouldn't even worry about Penn when you probably (barring some miraculous scholarship) wouldn't go there anyway.